This invention relates drinks-dispensing apparatus.
Such apparatus commonly includes for each kind of drink to be dispensed (a) a dispensing head which includes a nozzle for feeding the drink into a cup placed below the nozzle, and associated control valves for controlling the flow of drink ingredients under pressure from supply lines to the nozzle for mixing there and delivery into a waiting cup, (b) manually-operable electrical selection means for selecting the quantity of drink to be delivered to the cup, and (c) an electrical control module responsive to an output signal of the selection means and arranged to energise in response thereto the control valves for a period sufficient to deliver the selected quantity of drink through the nozzle into the waiting cup.
A plurality of such dispensing heads may be arranged in a common drink dispensing unit, each such head being arranged to deliver a particular drink different from those to be delivered by the other dispensing heads, and each head being controlled independently of the other heads by its own dedicated selection means and control module. By way of example, a known drinks-dispensing unit includes three such dispensing heads, dispenses three different drinks, and includes three separate spaced-apart selection means and their associated control modules. The three different drinks may comprise a brand of cola, a brand of low calorie `diet` cola, and a brand of lemonade.
In such a dispensing unit, the dispensing of drinks from the respective heads takes place in a serial, non-overlapping and hence time-consuming manner, which is less convenient for handling customers' multi-drink orders, such as are presented in cinemas, theatres and concert halls in the intervals between successive parts of a performance.